The term “content” refers to any original work of art in all its forms, e.g. musical compositions, or more broadly, audible content, video content with or without an audio component, any type of visual art such as paintings, novels, and/or the like. The term “metadata” refers to any information which describes, but does not embody, content. Specifically, metadata describes how, when and by whom a particular set of data was collected, and how the data is formatted. Metadata may describe characteristics of either logical or physical data.
Logical data generally refers to the actual content of the work of art in its most raw form, the spontaneous output of its creator, e.g. the score of a musical composition without regard to a specific performance, or the text of a novel. Physical data refers to a specific performance of content, e.g. a sound recording of a specific performance distributed in one of several different forms, i.e. as one or more tracks on a CD (Compact Disc), or as a computer file. Other examples of physical data may include the actual painting itself or a print, or for a novel, the actual physical book.
Metadata describing logical data is usually determined by the creator of the content. For example, the date of creation of a musical composition, the name of the composer, the title of the composition, the musical genre to which the composition belongs, or the title of a painting, the name of the painter, the relevant style/period, or the title of a novel, the name of the author, and the number and titles of various chapters would all be described by logical metadata.
Metadata describing physical data is usually determined by the distributor of the content. For example, for a recording of a particular performance, the playing time, the recording date, and the name(s) of the performer(s) would be described by physical metadata. Such physical metadata may be independent of the distribution medium. Medium-dependent physical metadata may include, for example, the number of tracks on a CD and the track number where a particular content may be found, or the name of a computer file, its size, bit rate and codec used to encode content in the file. Medium-dependent physical metadata may also include the size of a painting canvas or print and the materials involved, or the binding of a novel, the number of pages in the novel, and the page numbers where respective chapters start, etc.
User agent (“UA”) refers to a device which facilitates the consumption of content-related physical data and, in some cases, converting content from one form of physical data to another (e.g. ‘burning’ or ‘ripping’ a CD). For example, in the case of paintings and novels, the physical data itself is the UA in that prints and books are ready to be consumed directly by their audience. In regard to audible content, the UA may be a piece of computer software, commonly called “media player” or the like. Such UAs contain a component capable of rendering physical data into audible form (hereinafter referred to as ‘Player’) and, to varying degrees, internal storage for metadata (metadata repository).
The term “ingestion” refers to the process of a UA becoming aware of content, and, depending on the particular UA, recording and managing metadata about the same. An Application Programming Interface (“API”) refers to any of several different ways that a UA may expose its functionality for use by another UA.
Media users typically desire to purchase new media such as CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, paintings, books and the like, but would generally prefer not to repurchase media that they already own. For example, a media user may have to purchase the entire CD of a particular artist in order to obtain possession of only two or three songs (tracks) that are needed to complete his/her collection of that artist as no media source with just these two or three songs (tracks) may be available for purchase. The need exists, therefore, for a media collection functionality that would make it possible for media users to easily and efficiently identify missing media content, and purchase any identified missing content to complete their media collection without incurring unnecessary extra costs. It would be desirable to have such functionality made applicable to any type of digital media.